Quartet celebrate recycling bonus

David Sedgwick

Four residents are celebrating an early Christmas present after entering a North Tyneside Council competition.

Yvonne Mason, Mark Beckham, Angela Husthwaite and Rosie Halliday each won £250 high street vouchers after taking part in the council’s waste campaign Changing Our Thinking.

By signing up, residents are asked to pledge to wash, squash and recycle their recyclable items.

As part of it entrants could win a share of £1,000 by guessing how many recyclable items were in a 240-litre wheelie bin. After the four correctly guessed there were 187 recyclable materials in the bin, the £1,000 prize was spilt.

Coun John Stirling, cabinet member for environment, said: “It was a pleasure to meet with the winners.”

“I’m pleased the vouchers will come in handy for Christmas. It was also great to hear about how helpful they found the campaign.

“Since we launched it three years ago, the fun roadshows have proved to be a huge hit with the public and I am delighted that we have engaged with over 6,000 residents and 10,000 school children.

“The campaign has been a great way for the council to increase recycling rates and divert recyclable materials away from landfill and its success was recently recognised at the Public Sector Sustainability Awards.

“I am therefore pleased to announce that we’ll be running it for a fourth consecutive year and there will be lots of chances for the public to win £100 a month again and schools to win £100 towards an environmental project of their choice.”

Yvonne said: “I feel over the moon, I am going to spend the £250 on Christmas presents for my daughter, they’ll be a big help.”

Mark added: “I entered during a roadshow in the playground at Appletree Gardens First School, I never win anything but I thought I’d give the competition a go. The vouchers couldn’t have come at a better time; I’ll be using them to buy toys for Christmas for my children.”

Rosie said: “I am absolutely delighted to have been one of the winners of the competition, it’s unbelievable that I managed to guess the correct amount of items in the recycling bin, just proves that almost everything can be recycled and everyone should do so for the benefit of the environment.”

Angela added: “It feels fabulous to win! I’ll be spending it on Christmas shopping, presents and a mattress topper for my bed.”

For more on the campaign and roadshows visit www.northtyneside.gov.uk.

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